Grocery Store Unveils World’s First Plastic-Free Aisle

The world’s first plastic-free grocery store aisle has just been unveiled in Amsterdam, and Dutch legislators are hoping that it will encourage the UK to do something similar.

Dutch grocery store chain Ekoplaza unveiled the aisle at their Jan Pieter Heijestraat location on Wednesday. The aisle includes over 700 products – such as fruits, vegetables, cereals, condiments, beverages, snacks, meats, and non-perishables – all of which are packaged in recyclable and biodegradable materials.

The company’s 70 other branches are set to roll out similar aisles by the end of this year.

“Plastic-free aisles are an important stepping stone to a brighter future for food and drink,” Ekoplaza chief executive, Erik Does, said in a statement. “We know that our customers are sick to death of products laden in layer after layer of thick plastic packaging.”

The project, which was orchestrated by environmental group A Plastic Planet, is just one of many initiatives that have recently been taken to ditch plastic packaging. Replacing the harmful material has been a popular subject of legislation following the release of the BBC documentary series Blue Planet II, which highlighted the scourge of oceanic pollution.

A Plastic Planet’s co-founder Sian Sutherland said: “The introduction of the world’s first Plastic Free Aisle represents a landmark moment for the global fight against plastic pollution. For decades shoppers have been sold the lie that we can’t live without plastic in food and drink. A Plastic Free Aisle dispels all that. Finally we can see a future where the public have a choice about whether to buy plastic or plastic-free.”

“There is absolutely no logic in wrapping something as fleeting as food in something as indestructible as plastic. Europe’s biggest supermarkets must follow Ekoplaza’s lead and introduce a plastic-free aisle at the earliest opportunity to help turn off the plastic tap.”